The Loudest Sound (2005)

I am will be taking several medium format photographs, portraits, of people living in Ho Chi Minh City. Each portrait set consists of two photographs of the same subject. Each photograph is approximately 1.5m x 1 m, portrait orientation. The first photograph records the subject in their environment, the second photograph is of the same subject in the same location wearing an orange jumpsuit with a white burlap bag over their head. (similar in form/composition to works by Rineke Dijkstra, Zwelethu Mthethwa)

I intend to photograph 5-10 subjects (meaning, 10-20 large photographs). The art work has interests in the recent dismissal by the US Courts of litigation against US Corporations by victims of Agent Orange and ongoing issues regarding Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

Other associations include the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, whose dyanamic leader was no less poisoned by Agent Orange in an alleged assassination attempt.

I will be photographing soon and if all goes well, have the large prints the following week. If the quality is acceptable, I will send those prints to your attention with some specification on how I'd like them displayed. I think it would be best to have them framed in Dublin (in clear lucite), thereby significantly reducing the shipping cost from Vietnam.

Also, I would like to arrange for the purchase three 50 gallon drums, painted orange (almost the fluorescent orange color). These drums will be located in the center of the room, the photographs will be displayed on the walls in effect creating a perimeter around the drums. A sign on a post will read:

SIDE A:
THÙNG RỖNG KÊU TO

SIDE B:
Empty vessels make the loudest sound

It's an old Vietnamese proverb, in effect meaning the more hollow the drum, the louder the noise; Things/people with nothing inside their heads talk the most; Empty policies wreak havoc on the world.